This article is part of our FanDuel MLB series.
There's a healthy 12 games on the main slate Wednesday night and that offers a lot of different options. Let's dive in and take a look to see who can help your lineups.
Pitching
Clayton Kershaw, LAD vs. ARI ($10,200): Kershaw faced the Cubs in Wrigley Field on May 4 and finished with -3 FanDuel fantasy points. That's the exact place Max Scherzer will be tonight, so I'm going to suggest not paying up for Mad Max at $11,700. Being honest, that could be a mistake. However, Kershaw is at home and the Diamondbacks are in the bottom half of the league in both wOBA and strikeout rate on the road against lefties.
Aaron Civale, CLE at LAA ($7,300): I don't like using pitchers on the road, but Civale has an attractive salary and has established a nice floor. Taking out his lowest performance (14 FD points), Civale has had at least 23 fantasy points in his other seven starts including a 32.8 average. The Angels are missing Mike Trout, David Fletcher (maybe) and Max Stassi (maybe) and the bottom half of their lineup is, to put it bluntly, a disaster.
Top Targets
Nolan Arenado, STL vs. PIT ($4,000): Arenado has been a nice addition to the Cardinals lineup and he hasn't missed the hitter-friendly confines of Coors Field. He has a .383 wOBA at home against right-handed pitching and his splits favor him at home as well. Trevor Cahill has struggled this season with a 5.97 ERA, and that balloons to 7.58 on the road.
Max Muncy, LAD vs. ARI ($3,800): I love Muncy for a few different reasons. He hits in a good RBI spot, he's at home (.455 wOBA this season, .364 career) and is facing Merrill Kelly. Against right-handed hitters on the road this season Kelly has allowed a .382 wOBA, and overall for his career has a 5.33 ERA on the road. Take advantage of this situation (more on that later).
Value Bats
Gio Urshela, NYY at TEX ($2,500): This is a nice salary to take on and there's a lot of upside. Urshela should be hitting cleanup and is batting .291 with five home runs. He's averaging nine fantasy points per game and is an easy low-salaried player to work into your lineup.
Kyle Lewis, SEA vs. DET: ($2,500): Lew is another player who should be hitting fourth and he doesn't have a daunting matchup against Tarik Skubal and the Tigers. In a small sample (24.1 innings), Skubal has allowed a .424 wOBA to opposing right-handed hitters, a mark that goes up to .513 on the road.
Stacks To Consider
Toronto Blue Jays vs. Garrett Richards: Vladimir Guerrero ($4,200), Marcus Semien ($3,800), Teoscar Hernandez ($3,100), Randal Grichuk ($2,900)
This game has the highest over/under total of the slate according to Vegas, and there's nothing wrong with stacking the Red Sox either. Guerrero has as much upside as anyone in baseball and Semien has duel eligibility providing some lineup flexibility. I purposely didn't go with all the most expensive Blue Jays here to be a bit contrarian, which is what you have to be to win a big GPP.
Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Kelly: Muncy, Mookie Betts ($4,200), Will Smith ($3,200), Matt Beaty ($2,100)
Normally I would use names like Bellinger and Seager here, but they're both dealing with injuries. Beaty has performances of 19.5, 25.4 and 55.1 fantasy points in three of his last 12 games, so there's nice upside for his salary. I feel like Smith gets no respect because he's a catcher, but his stats show he's a very viable option. Again, Kelly doesn't pitch as well on the road as he does at home.
